AIM-7 Sparrow

Go Back to Air-to-Air Missile

Go Back To Weapons Home

	Weapon: AIM-7 Sparrow Type: Air-to-Air Missile Country of Origin: United States Year Adopted: 1958 Caliber: 200mm 40kg warhead Action: Radar Guided Missile Overall Length (mm): 3700.0 Overall Length (in): 145.67 Weight (kg): 230.00 Weight (pounds): 507.06 Effective Range (km): 50 Effective Range (miles): 31.07

The AIM-7 Sparrow is a U.S. medium-range, semi-active radar-homing air-to-air missile developed from late-1940s Navy programs (Project Hotshot) and fielded in successive "Sparrow I-III" iterations before the definitive AIM-7F/M/P families. Guided by the launching aircraft's radar energy reflected off the target, the Sparrow evolved from early beam-riding and SARH prototypes into solid-state, dual-thrust designs with improved seekers, fuzing and ECM resistance; its lineage also produced the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow for ship self-defense and European derivatives like Skyflash and Aspide. Cumulative output was substantial-by 2001, more than 62,000 AIM-7 AAMs (plus ~9,000 RIM-7 SAMs) had been built.

In service, Sparrows armed a who's-who of Western fighters-from the F-4 Phantom II and F-14 Tomcat to the F-15, F-16 and F/A-18-and saw combat from Vietnam to Desert Storm. Vietnam exposed serious shortcomings in early AIM-7D/E/E-2 models (maintenance sensitivity, fuzing and guidance issues, restrictive ROE), yielding poor kill rates; later redesigns addressed these flaws, and the AIM-7M (with inverse-monopulse seeker, active proximity fuze and digital controls) performed far better in 1991, with open sources citing roughly two-thirds hit rates and over 50% Pk in U.S. employment.

The Sparrow's notoriety is thus twofold: infamous for early combat performance in Southeast Asia, yet ultimately validated as the West's principal BVR missile until AMRAAM supplanted it in the 1990s. Its enduring naval offshoot (RIM-7 Sea Sparrow) and numerous foreign variants underscore a lasting legacy-bridging the gap between first-generation guided weapons and today's active-radar AAMs.